WINDOWS NT
bulletSECONDARY DNS
In order for your secondary DNS to work properly, you have to go in and add all of your primary zones as secondary zones on the secondary DNS. Go the DNS Manager on the secondary DNS. You will see your Primary and your Secondary DNS listed. Under your secondary server, create a new zone and select the secondary radio button. Type in the name, then click next. Tab through to create the zone file, and for the Master IP place the IP address of your Primary DNS. Once that is complete, all of your records should transfer over to the secondary DNS. Once you are finished, you may want to update the zone files for your DNS.
bulletMINIMIZE AND MAXIMIZE

Is there's any way to minimize a Windows NT Workstation 4.0 window using only the keyboard.

There sure is--all you have to do is press Alt-Space-N. To maximize a window, press Alt-Space-X. If you want to close a window without touching the mouse, simply press Alt-F4.  Want to move a window without help from the mouse? Press Alt-Space-M. Now use the arrow keys to position the window. When you're finished moving the window, press Enter. You can also size a window using the arrow keys--just press Alt-Space-S.
bulletPRINTING THE DIRECTORY

Go to the Command Prompt and type

dir > prn

then press Enter. This is an easy way to print the contents of any folder as long as your printer will work using this method. The problem is that most laser printers require a form feed signal before they start printing. What happens in many cases is that the Directory is less than one page, and no form feed gets sent to the printer. When this happens, you won't get output unless you repeat the command.

Give this method a try--it may work fine for you.
bulletNO FORMAT?

"I recently tried to format a floppy disk in drive A with no luck. Later I tried the format again and it worked. I've had this happen several times over the year or so that I've been using Windows NT Workstation 4.0. I've also had Copy Disk fail. Do you have any idea why Format and Copy Disk would work most of the time and then occasionally fail?"

The most likely reason for the problem you describe is that drive A is open when you attempt the format. To check this out, run Windows NT Explorer and select drive A. Insert a blank disk now (you don't want to mess up a data disk) and right-click the drive A icon. Choose Format; when the Format dialog box opens, click Start. The formatting will fail because the contents of the drive are currently displayed.

Now, click drive C in Windows NT Explorer. Go back to the drive A icon and right-click it again. Choose Format and then click Start. This time the Format will work.

The problem is that you can't do a Copy Disk Format while Explorer or My Computer is displaying the contents of your floppy. You can click any other object to stop displaying the contents of the floppy and then right-click drive A.
bulletINSTALL NETWORKING BEFORE SERVICE PACK

Here's one we heard about from subscriber N. G. and also ran across with our own installation. If you install Windows NT Workstation 4.0and then install Service Pack 3 before you install networking, you may get an error telling you that the Server service failed due to lack of memory. To correct the problem, reinstall Service Pack 3. To avoid the problem, install all the network components before you install Service Pack 3.
bulletBOOT FROM A FLOPPY

Windows NT Workstation 4.0
We have received a ton of mail asking how to make a Windows NT Workstation 4.0 boot disk. You can't make a Windows NT Workstation 4.0 boot disk in the same way that you'd make an MS-DOS or Windows 95 boot disk (the Windows 95 boot disk boots to the Windows 95 version of MS-DOS). Windows NT Workstation 4.0 doesn't run on top of MS-DOS as Windows 95 does. NT is a much more complex operating system, and you can't get by with a single boot disk.

That said, it IS possible to make a boot disk to help with some of the more common problems you encounter with Windows NT Workstation 4.0 at start-up. Suppose, for example, that you use a dual boot system. Let's say your NTLDR file is damaged. This will prevent a normal boot.

You can create a disk that will at least get you through the start-up so you can choose NT or Windows. To do this, format a floppy disk. Now, run Windows NT Explorer and copy the following files to the floppy disk:

NTDETECT.COM
BOOT.INI
BOOTSECT.DOS
NTLDR

If you have NTBOOTDD.SYS in your boot folder, copy it to the floppy as well.

When you have a problem starting your system, insert the new boot floppy and restart. The boot disk will allow you access when the files in the boot folder (usually drive C) are damaged. It is not a true boot disk, since there are no operating system files on it.
bulletCLICK YOUR HEELS TOGETHER THREE TIMES...

Would you like to get to the desktop quickly even though you don't have one of the new Windows keyboards? With the Windows keyboard, all you have to do to get to the desktop is press the Windows key-M. If you don't have a Windows keyboard, you can press Ctrl-Esc and then press Alt-M.
bulletDEFRAG THAT NTFS VOLUME

Even NTFS volumes need to be defragmented now and then. There's no doubt that your disk operations will get a new lease on life with less fragmentation. Unfortunately, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 doesn't include a defrag utility. But Diskeeper Lite from Execsoft will do the job for you. If you'd like to try Diskeeper Lite, go to

and click Download. You'll be asked to fill out Execsoft's Guest Book before you begin. Although previous versions of Diskeeper Lite for the Intel platform had a 30-day expiration, this one is free and has no expiration. Note that, because the program is free, there is no support. If you decide you want the features of the full version, all you have to do is request the upgrade.
bulletOPEN IT NOW

If you're working with an application and need to open the current disk's folder, click Start, Run. Type in a single period (.) and press Enter. This will open the current disk's folder. For example, if you're running your  on Drive D, then the Drive D folder will open.
bulletICON DO THIS
How do you create an icon from a graphics file you already have?" If you'd like to expand your icon library, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 can use existing BMP files as icons. You can even design your own icons if you like. Let's say you have a shortcut to Windows NT Explorer on your desktop. To change the icon, right-click the shortcut and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Now, click Change Icon. When the Change Icon dialog box opens, select from one of the offered icons, or click Browse to locate a BMP file to use as an icon. Clicking Browse opens another dialog box also named Change Icon. You can use this dialog box to search for those BMP files. First, though, you need to click the arrow at the right side of the Files of Type list box to open the list. Choose All Files from the list. Now, locate a BMP file to use as a test icon. Select the file and click Open. Back in the first Change Icon dialog box, click OK to continue. In the Properties dialog box, click OK to close the box and apply your change. You'll find that the lighter and less crowded BMP files look best as icons.
bulletPUT IT ON THE DESKTOP
We have often discussed placing shortcuts on the desktop. In general, we recommend that you run Windows NT Explorer and then use the right mouse button to drag an icon to the desktop. When you release the mouse button, a menu opens. You choose Create Shortcut(s) Here from the menu. Pointed out that you can create a shortcut directly on the desktop without running Windows NT Explorer.To create a shortcut this way, right-click the desktop and choose New, Shortcut to open the Create Shortcut wizard. When the wizard opens, type the name and full path of the file to which you want to create the shortcut, then click Next. If you don't know the full name and path, click Browse. When the Browse dialog box opens, locate and select the file to which you want to make a shortcut. Click Open to continue. Back in the Create Shortcut wizard, click Next and type in a name for your new shortcut. Click Next again and select an icon. Click Finish to close the dialog box and create your new shortcut--icon and all.
bulletCREATE A FOLDER IN MY COMPUTER?
You can create folders almost anywhere in Windows NT Workstation 4.0. For example, you can right-click the desktop (or any blank spot inside a folder) and choose New, Folder. You can open the Command Prompt window, type md c:\MyNewFolder and press Enter. You can also create a new folder inside an existing folder. To do this, open a folder and choose File, New, Folder. However, we recently received questions from readers who would like to create a new folder in My Computer--and this you cannot do. My Computer is a special window, and you can neither add to it nor subtract from it.
bulletA QUICKER CONNECTION
I have three computers tied together in a small office. I'd like to place drive icons on my desktop for the other two computers. The only problem with this is it seems to take forever for the network to connect when I boot the computer. Is there a way to speed up the process?" When you place remote drive icons on your desktop, NT 4.0 will take a few moments to make sure you're reconnected every time you start the computer. However, you can turn off this option. Double-click the Network Neighborhood icon to open it. Locate the drive you want to place on your desktop. Right-click the icon and choose Map Network Drive. To stop the automatic reconnects, deselect the check box labeled "Reconnect at logon." Click OK to record your selection. Now you can open My Computer and place a shortcut to the new drive on your desktop. When you restart the computer, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 will not attempt to connect the remote computer. However, when you double-click the remote drive icon, you'll get connected. The first time you attempt to open the remote drive, you may notice a slight delay, but it will connect rather quickly.
bulletMURPHY'S LAW
We often create REG files to take care of tasks that would otherwise require us to modify the Registry directly using RegEdit. The reason we prefer REG files is that readers can keep these files for later use. This is much easier than keeping copies of the tips and then going through all the RegEdit steps. However, since we've started using more REG files, we have also received complaints about the files not working properly. We found that part of the problem was that the text format might look different on your computer than on ours. That's because different e-mail programs may display text differently, crop certain characters, or delete blank spaces. This can lead to errors in the REG file. It's also important to note that there must be at least one empty line at the end of each REG file. So we've decided to include the text "Blank line goes here" wherever there's a need for a blank line. When you create a REG file from one of our tips, be sure you press Enter wherever the blank-line placeholder appears. Thanks to subscriber Chuck T. for his valuable input on this topic.
bulletSIGNING ON AGAIN
Remember the tip that won't die? Here's the question that won't die about the tip that won't die:Question: If I use the automatic log-on (the undead tip) that you described in a recent tip, can I still log on as another user? Answer: To log on as another user, click Start and then choose Shut Down. Select the radio button labeled Close All Programs and Log On as a Different User? Click Yes and hold down the Shift key while Windows NT restarts. When Windows NT Workstation 4.0 restarts, the sign-in box will appear. Just type in the new name and associated password.
bulletDISSIN' THE HOOD
We get a lot of questions about Network Neighborhood. Most of these questions involve how to get the icon off the desktop. If you don't want the Network Neighborhood icon on your desktop, here's a REG file that will make it disappear. As usual, we must warn you that REG files can damage your Registry. We can't guarantee that any REG file will do what you expect on your system. With this disclaimer out of the way, here's the REG file. To create it, run Notepad and type in the following exactly as shown. (Note: The line numbers are there to show you what goes on a single line--do not type them in. In the past we have had some problems with REG files due to the way the e-mail is formatted. To alleviate these problems, we now use line numbers in all REG files. This will help you see how the file should be formatted even if the format is incorrect in your e-mail. Don't enter these numbers--if you enter them, your REG file will not work. Also, whether this appears in your e-mail or not, there should be a blank line between REGEDIT4 and the first line of code.)
1 REGEDIT4
2
3[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
4"NoNetHood"=dword:1 Choose File, Save As and name the file Net.reg. Save it in the folder of your choice. To merge the file with the Registry, double-click its icon. After the file successfully merges, restart the computer. After you've restarted, the Network Neighborhood icon will no longer appear on your desktop.
bulletNO SOUNDS HERE
For people who want to listen to audio CDs with headphones: Open the volume control (double-click its icon in the Taskbar) and move the slider buttons up to the volume you want, then select the check box labeled Mute All. Now close the volume control (Options, Exit), plug in your headphones to your CD-ROM drive, and run CD Player (Start, Programs, Accessories, Multimedia, CD Player). If you do this, you can listen to music without being bothered by the background sounds.You can use a similar method to listen to music with the speakers. Open Volume Control and select Mute for all the check boxes except the one for the CD. This will prevent your hearing the computer sounds while you enjoy your CD.
bulletOPEN WITH THIS OR THIS
Recently when using Windows Explorer, I tried to open a file named Card.brk, and a dialog box opened saying Type Not Recognized, so I took a guess and told it to open using mplayer. This didn't work, so now I would like to open the file using raplayer, but every time I go to Windows Explorer to open Card.brk, it tries to open it in mplayer. Is there some way I can get Windows to stop seeing .brk as type mplayer and have Windows see it as another type of file?"Let's say you double-click a file for which there is no association. The Open With dialog box opens so you can choose a program that will open the file. Most often, the check box labeled "Always use this program to open this file" is selected, so once you choose a program to open the file, the association will stick even if the program doesn't work with the file. To choose another program, select the file in question, then hold down Shift. Now, right-click the file's icon and choose Open With from the menu. The Open With dialog box appears again, and you can make a new choice. If you select the "Always use this program to open this file" check box, the new association becomes the default.
bulletRUNAWAY AUTORUN
We've had several messages asking about an easy way to keep Windows NT 4.0 from automatically starting CDs as soon as they're inserted into the drive. We've gone through the Registry edit for this in a past tip. This time, let's write a REG file to do the job.We can't guarantee that a REG file will run as expected on your system, so be careful--after all, the REG file does modify the system Registry.Click Start, Programs, Accessories, Notepad. Type in the following as shown except for the line numbers. We have inserted the line numbers to show you which data goes on each line.
1. REGEDIT4
2.
3. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Cdrom]
4.
5. "Autorun"=dword:00000000
Choose File, Save As and name the file Auto.reg. Save it in a convenient folder. Double-click Auto.reg to merge its data with the Registry. If you decide to turn Autorun back on, you can create another REG file. Once again, run Notepad and enter:
1. REGEDIT4
2.
3. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Cdrom]
4.
5. "Autorun"=dword:00000001
Name this file AutoOn.reg and save it. To turn on AutoRun, just double-click the AutoOn.reg icon. Note: Some software may not like having AutoRun turned off. For example, we get a warning that our HP rewritable CD drive may not function properly with AutoRun off. 11/2
bulletHELLO ALL
I put together systems using Windows NT Workstation 4.0. I'd like to set up all the workstations to display an introductory message the first time a user logs on. I want the message to disappear after the first log-on without any intervention on my part. A friend says this is possible, but he doesn't remember how to do it. Can you help?"To display a message one time only, use the RunOnce key in the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Registry. Since you'd like to apply this to several computers at one time, let's look at how you can write a REG file to do the job for you. As usual, we must warn you that we can't guarantee a REG file will do what you want. We also can't guarantee system damage won't occur. To write the REG file, run Notepad and enter the following exactly as shown, except that you should enter a blank line where it says "Blank line goes here." REGEDIT4 Blank line goes here [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce] "Welcome"="c:\\welcome.cmd" Blank line goes here Choose File, Save As and locate a folder for your new file. Name the file Welcome.reg and click Save. Now you need to generate a message file. Run Notepad again and type in the following. @echo off echo Your message goes here pause Exit Choose File, Save As and locate the root folder, C:\. Name the file Welcome.cmd and click Save. Now, double-click Welcome.reg. This will merge the REG file with the current Registry. The next time someone logs on, the message will display. You can put Welcome.cmd and Welcome.reg onto a floppy disk. Put the disk into drive A of a computer that you're ready to turn over to a user and copy Welcome.cmd to c:\ (assuming C is the drive that contains Winnt). Double-click Welcome.reg to modify the Registry. Remove the floppy and let the user take over. The welcome message will run only the first time someone logs onto the system. Windows NT Workstation 4.0 will then remove the new entry from the Registry, and the Welcome file won't run again.
bulletHAPPY HOLIDAYS
Now that the holidays are once again upon us, we thought you might like to try some festive wallpaper. Go to http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/frameset/0,1458,4327,00.html to download a copy of the Holly-day wallpaper collection. This Zip file contains a collection of wreaths, bells, and candles. Unzip to your \Winnt folder. You may also like to take a look at Christmas wallpapers, located at http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/frameset/0,1458,4332,00.html.As before, unzip to \Winnt.
bulletTOO LONG FOR REGEDIT?
Here's something we've experienced that may be of interest to other readers. RegEdit has a limit on how big the text field can be when you're adding or changing text. For example, our Legal Notice is too large to update with either RegEdit or Profile Editor. However, if you use a REG file to update the values, then the contents of the field can be significantly longer. To create a REG file for this job, run Notepad and enter the following as shown here, except be sure to press Enter to create a blank line in place of the text "Blank line goes here."REGEDIT4 Blank line goes here [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon] "LegalNoticeCaption"="Put your caption here" "LegalNoticeText"="Enter your personal text here" Blank line goes here Type in your personal caption and notice, then choose File, Save As and locate a folder for your new file. Name the file Legal.reg and save it. To use the file, double-click its icon and then restart the computer. As always when working with the Registry, please proceed with extreme caution.
bulletEXPAND THEM ALL
Let's say you're working in Windows NT Explorer and you'd like to expand all the subfolders. Don't waste time clicking each plus sign; just click a folder to select it and then press the asterisk (*) key on the numerical keypad. This will expand all the folders.Note: The asterisk key over the 8 will not work--you need to use the one in the number pad.
bulletEASY EXPANSION
When you work with Windows NT Explorer, you frequently need to expand and collapse the folders. You can do this with the mouse, of course, but this isn't the only way. We recently ran a tip discussing keyboard techniques you can use to expand and collapse folders and subfolders in Windows NT Explorer. "In a recent tip, you suggested using the asterisk, plus, and minus keys on the numeric keypad to expand and collapse folders and subfolders in Windows NT Explorer. An even easier way is to use the arrow keys adjacent to the numeric keypad. Use the right arrow to expand and the left arrow to collapse the selected folder. "Using this method allows you to move up, down, and expand or collapse the folders without moving your hands across the keyboard to do all four of these functions."
bulletA START IS BORN
When you open Windows NT Explorer, it defaults to C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator\Start Menu Since I am on a network, I would prefer that it open to s:\data, as that is where I spend most of my time. Is there a way to change this?" We've discussed how to open Windows NT Explorer in a particular folder before. You can do the same with a network folder. For the sake of this discussion, let's assume that you have an Explorer shortcut on your desktop. Right-click the Explorer icon and choose Properties. When the dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Click in the Target entry box and add /eto the end of the line. Your line will now look something like our example line: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e Next, click in the Start In entry box and type in the path to your networked drive. For example, the path could be \\NetComputer\Data Click OK to close the dialog box and record your changes. When you double-click the Explorer icon, Explorer will open to the new drive assignment. If the network drive is unavailable, Explorer will open to the desktop. Note that we tested this procedure using a peer-to-peer network. We did not test it using a server.
bulletWHEN WAS THE LAST TIME?
I'd like to be able to determine when Windows NT Workstation 4.0 was last started on any given computer. I've been told there's a way. Can you help?" The only way we know to find out when Windows NT Workstation 4.0 was last started requires that you use the Command Prompt. At the prompt, type net statistics workstation and press Enter. The first line shows the last time the system was started. To see the first line, you may need to type net statistics workstation |more at the prompt. More causes the program's output to pause at the end of the first page.
bulletTHE ART OF FORMATTING
When you format a floppy disk, you have two options--you can use standard formatting (the default) or you can select the Quick Format check box. Since Quick Format is so much faster than standard format, why wouldn't I use Quick Format all the time?" Let's take a look at what Murray is talking about. Put a blank disk or one you don't need into drive A. Open My Computer and then right-click the Floppy A icon. From the menu, choose Format. When the Format A dialog box opens, you'll see the Quick Format check box. If you select this check box, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 performs a Quick Format as soon as you click Start. If Quick Format is not selected, you get the standard format when you click Start. If you're sure the disk is OK, then you can save time by using Quick Format. Basically, Quick Format modifies the FAT to tell the disk it's blank. This is OK if you're absolutely sure the floppy is good. If you're not so sure, you'd better stick with the standard format, which checks each sector on the disk. This is why it takes longer. In effect, the standard format performs a complete low-level and high-level format. Quick Format uses the formatting that already exists on the floppy and only modifies the FAT.
bulletNEW SETUP FLOPPIES
I recently had to reinstall Windows NT Workstation 4.0 completely. I discovered that disk 3 of the installation set was bad. I had to borrow a disk from someone to complete the installation. Is there an easy way to make a new disk 3, or do I have to order a new set from Microsoft?" You won't need to order a new set--you can make a new set from the installation CD. Make sure you have three formatted, blank floppy disks available. Now, insert the installation CD into the CD-ROM drive and then click Start, Run, and type d:\i386\winnt32 /ox then press Enter. (Note: D represents the drive letter of the CD-ROM--if yours is something other than D, enter the correct drive letter here). Follow the instructions to create a new set of disks. If you get in a bind, such as the one you described, you can create the disks on a non-NT 4 computer. Let's say you have access to a computer that runs Windows 95. Insert the NT 4 installation disc into the CD-ROM drive and click Start, Run. Type d:\i386\winnt /ox and press Enter. Follow the instructions to create the three disks.
bulletA QUICK ROUTE TO THE MOUSE
I share my computer with two other users. One of the other users changes the mouse tracking speed. So when I use the computer, I have to click Start, then choose Settings, Control Panel, open Mouse, and so forth, just to set the speed where I can use it. Is there a way that I can access the Mouse panel directly without going through all those steps?" Glad you asked. There just happens to be a way to do what you want. Run Windows NT Explorer and navigate to \Winnt\system32. Locate Main.cpl and use the right mouse button to drag its icon to the desktop. Release the mouse button and choose Create Shortcut(s) Here. All you have to do now is double-click your new shortcut to open the mouse panel.
bulletDELETING UNUSED DRIVES
How do you remove entries in the path field generated in the Map Network Drive dialog box? I map drives all the time in my office network, but I don't use all of them any longer and I now have a long list of useless entries." Open My Computer. You should see a drive for each of the mapped network drives. Right-click a drive you want to delete and choose Disconnect. The drive assignment will disappear from My Computer and from the Map Network Drive dialog box.
bulletEIGHTY-SIX YOUR TEMP FILES
Having trouble with temp files it seems that every day more and more empty folders with the extension .tmp appear in my c:\temp directory. Is there a batch file or registry setting I can use to delete these at start-up?"Here's a batch file that should handle the job. To create the file, run Notepad and enter the following as shown here.@echo off del c:\temp\*.tmp Choose File, Save As and locate a folder for the new file. Name the file deltmp.bat and save it. Next, run Windows NT Explorer and locate your start-up folder (under \Winnt\Profiles\YourName\Programs). Grab the deltmp.bat icon with the right mouse button and drag it to your start-up folder. Release the mouse button and choose Create Shortcut(s) Here.Note that it's possible to lose some data when you use this batch file. For example, if a program hangs and you shut it down using End Task, you may have lost some data you needed in those temp files.
bulletI KNOW WHERE TO CLICK
Are you tired of that start banner with the little arrow--the one that says Click Here to Begin? If so, here's a REG file that will dispense with that start banner. Be careful when you run REG files--we don't guarantee that the file will do what you expect, and we can't guarantee that the REG file won't cause system problems. To write the REG file, run Notepad and type in the following exactly as shown, with blank lines where indicated.REGEDIT4 BLANK LINE GOES HERE [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] "NoStartBanner"="1" BLANK LINE GOES HERE Now, choose File, Save As and locate a folder for your new REG file. Name the file Banner.reg and click Save. To use the file, double-click its icon. The information will be merged into the Registry, and the next time you start your computer, you won't see that banner. If you decide you'd like to have the banner back again, change "NoStartBanner"="1" to "NoStartBanner"="0" and restart the computer.
bulletGET TO THE DESKTOP QUICKLY
Over the past months, we have described several schemes that will allow you to get to the desktop quickly. As a number of readers have pointed out, you don't have to do anything special to get to the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 desktop if you use a keyboard with a Windows key. All you have to do is press Windows-M. This minimizes all the active windows and gets you to the blank desktop. We've mentioned this before, but we've had so much mail on the subject that we thought we should cover the topic again. Note that this method minimizes all the active windows--it does not minimize dialog boxes. In fact, this is a good way to get back to open dialog boxes. Let's say that you have opened the Multimedia dialog box. Then you opened a Readme file for reference. You can get to the dialog box with Alt-Tab, but you can get there immediately with Windows-M.
bulletHIDE DRIVE C
I'm in charge of a number of computers running Windows NT Workstation 4.0. My problem is that too many users inadvertently make changes that cause problems. It would help me if I could prevent users from seeing drive C. Is there a way to hide the disk drives?" You can hide disk drives from the desktop and Windows NT Explorer with a simple Registry edit. Be careful with this because we can't guarantee that all will run as you expect, and you can damage your system with an incorrect Registry Edit. To hide drive C, click Start, Run, then type regedit and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer Right-click in the right pane and choose New, DWORD Value. Name the new key NoDrives and then press Enter twice (once to accept the name and once to open the Edit DWORD Value dialog box. In the dialog box, select the radio button labeled Decimal. Now, enter 4 and click OK. Choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit and restart the computer. Upon restarting, drive C will no longer appear in Explorer or in My Computer. This isn't absolute protection--you can still access drive C if you click Start, Run, type c:\ and press Enter. However, not all your users will know this, so you'll have some degree of protection.If you need to hide some drive other than C, the following is a list of a few drives and their associated numbers.
Drive A: 1
Drive B: 2
Drive C: 4
Drive D: 8
Drive E: 16
So if you want to hide drives C, D, and E, set NoDrives to 28 decimal (16 + 8 + 4). To hide only drive A, you'd enter 1.
bulletWHAT'S YOUR FUNCTION?
I recently played with a Macintosh that was being used by label designers, and they had a neat keyboard setup. The function keys were all programmed as hotkeys to load a specific program (F6 to load PhotoShop, F8 to load PageMaker, and so on). I was wondering if this is possible in Win NT or Win 95. If not, would it be possible to use Ctrl to load a program?"You can assign function keys to programs. However, you need to be aware that many of these keys are already assigned. If you reassign them, you'll lose the original function. This caveat applies to program key assignments as well. As an example, F1 is assigned to Help. When you press F1, the Help window will open. This will work in almost all Windows NT 4.0 programs. If you assign F1 to open a program, you'll lose the ability to press F1 in any program when you want to open Help.Let's suppose that you don't care about using F1 to open Help and that you'd like to reassign it to open Microsoft Word. To do this, place a shortcut to Word on your desktop. Now, right-click the shortcut's icon and choose Properties from the menu. In the Properties dialog box, click the Shortcut tab. Next, click once in the Shortcut Key entry box. Press F1 to assign the key to Word. Click OK to close the dialog box. When you press F1 now, Word will open. You can assign any key combination that isn't already in use, or you can assign one that is in use as long as you don't need to use the keys for the original purpose. If you don't want to use F1 to open Word, you could try Ctrl-Alt-W.
bulletMAKE A NOTE HERE, PLEASE
When researching a topic in reference books, many people find it useful to use sticky notes to make notes to themselves concerning a particular topic. When you work with the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Help files, you might also find it convenient to make notes to yourself--and you can do just that without ever reaching for a sheet of paper. Let's take a look at how to annotate your Help topics .Double-click My Computer to open it and then choose Help, Help Topics. When the Help Topics dialog box opens, click the Index tab. Select a topic and click Display. Now, click Options and choose Annotate. This opens the Annotate dialog box. Enter your note and click Save to close the dialog box and save your note. You'll notice a green paper-clip icon next to the topic now. Click the icon to open the Annotate dialog box and read your notes.
bulletONE RINGY-DINGY
When I use the dial-up server (RAS), it answers on the first ring. I'd like to have it wait for the second ring. Is there a way to do this?" There doesn't appear to be a simple way to change the way that RAS answers the line. However, you can do this with a Registry edit. As usual, be very careful when working with RegEdit. Click Start, Run, typeRegedit and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class. Now, expand Class and look for the Modem entry (it's usually the fourth one down). The first modem (if you have more than one) will be 0000. Expand this and then click Monitor. In the right pane you should see 1 ATSO=o[cr] Double-click this icon and change the 0 to a 2 (or the number of rings you want to use). Click OK and then close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit). Restart the computer (or log off and log back on). You can start RAS now, and it will answer on the number of rings you selected.
bulletON CALL
It seems to me I saw a tip about a way to keep Task Manager open but not visible. Is there a way to do this?"We ran a tip on this topic some time ago, but let's do a quick rehash. To keep Task Manager running but hidden from view, first open it by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Esc. Now choose Options, Hide When Minimized. Next, minimize Task Manager. Its icon will appear in the taskbar near the time display. To make Task Manager visible, double-click the taskbar icon. After each use, minimize it again--don't close it.
bulletBOOT FROM FLOPPY
There is. The reason for having a boot floppy is that there are times when Windows NT won't start, and you know why it won't start. For example, suppose Ntdetect.com is bad. And you know that's what is wrong because when you try to boot the computer, you get an error message telling you that the system can't find, or load, Ntdetect. When something like this happens, you can go through the usual procedures to restore the system. However, since you already know what's wrong, you could get your system back up again more quickly if you use a boot floppy.Make your boot floppy before any files go bad--there's no point in trying to make a boot floppy with potentially bad files. To create your boot floppy, insert a blank formatted floppy disk into Drive A. Now open Windows NT Explorer and click the root folder (usually C:\). Copy the following files to the floppy disk:Boot.ini Ntdetect.com Bootsect.dos (for dual startup installations) NTLDR Ntbootdd.sys (if it's in the root folder, copy it) If you don't see these files in your root folder, choose View, Options in Windows NT Explorer. Select the radio button labeled Show All Files. Now click Apply and then OK. Now you should see the files. If you don't, press F5 and look again. Using the boot floppy, you can boot into your damaged system and make the appropriate repairs.
bulletLOCATING ICONS
Let's say that you right-click a shortcut's icon and choose Properties, click the Shortcut tab, and click Change Icon. If you click the Browse button to search for more icon files, it's hard to know which files contain icons. Here's a REG file that will make your task easier. As usual, we can't guarantee that any Registry edit will work on your system, so proceed with caution. To generate the REG file, run Notepad and type in the following text as shown here, simply pressing Enter in place of "Blank line goes here." Note that lines 2 and 5 are blank lines. These empty lines are necessary for the REG file to work properly.REGEDIT4 Blank line goes here [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\DefaultIcon] @="%1" Blank line goes here Now choose File, Save As and select a folder for your new REG file. Name the file DLL.REG and save it. To use the REG file, double-click its icon. It will merge its data with the existing REG data and replace the current contents of the default icon with %1. After you run DLL.REG, restart the computer and run Windows NT Explorer. Now that you've modified the Registry, all DLL files that do not contain icons will use the default icon. DLL files that display icons other than the default contain icons you may want to use.
bulletSAFER REGISTRY EDITING
We often suggest that you use RegEdit to edit Registry entries--and we always warn you to be careful when you edit the Registry. That can help make Registry editing a bit safer. When you need to edit the Registry, open RegEdit as usual and navigate to the key that contains information you want to change. Let's say as an example that you want to get rid of some of the files in the Run list. Click Start, Run. Type in regedit and press Enter. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1125809198-528883985-1819828000-500\Software\Microsoft\W indows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU and click the RunMRU folder. Now choose Registry, Export Registry File. When the Export Registry File dialog box opens, give the file a name--something like Oldrun will do. Locate a folder in which to save the file, and click Save. You can go ahead and delete the files you want to eliminate now. When you're finished, close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit) and restart the computer. If you should decide later that you eliminated some programs you'd rather have back, double-click Oldrun.reg, and the original data will be merged back into the Registry.This method won't guarantee complete safety, but it can help.
bulletEXPLORE THE SYSTEM ATTRIBUTE
Recently ran into a situation where I needed to remove the system attribute of a file. I right-clicked the file in Windows NT Explorer and then chose Properties. I found that the System Attribute check box was selected, but grayed out so I couldn't change it. Then I checked some other files and folders I knew had System Attribute checked. I found that I couldn't change any of them. "Is this normal behavior for Explorer or Windows NT Workstation 4.0? What can I do to change the system attribute?" This is normal for Windows NT Explorer (although we suspect it's a bug). If you need to change the system attribute of a file, first open the Command Prompt. Now, to go to the folder that contains the file, type cd\TheFolder and press Enter. Now, type attrib -MyFile.ext –s and press Enter. This will remove the system attribute from the named file.
bulletBORN-AGAIN WORKSTATION
recently saw a tip on how to change the name of the company to which Windows 95 is registered. Could you please tell us how to do the same with Windows NT Workstation 4.0? Our company name recently changed, and we would like to change the name in Windows NT Workstation 4.0."You can do this with a simple Registry edit. That said, it's time to warn you that a Registry edit gone awry can thoroughly mess up your system. Click Start, Run, type regedit and press Enter. When RedEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion. In the right pane, you'll see the key "RegisteredOrganization"="Your old company name". Click this key to select it and press Enter. When the dialog box opens, type in the new name and press Enter. Close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit) and restart the computer. Upon restarting, your new name will become active. Note that software installed before you made the change will continue to use the original name.
bulletADMINISTRATOR PROTECTION PROGRAM
When I installed Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, I used the defaults, so my Administrator account name is Administrator. Is there a way to change the name?" To rename the Administrator account, choose Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, User Manager. When User Manager opens, select Administrator and choose User, Rename. Type in the new name and choose User, Exit to close the dialog box. When you restart the computer, enter the new name in the Logon dialog box, then enter your password.
bulletGETTING THE BLUES
We have had several questions about if there was any way to change the color of the log-on background, We recently ran a tip on how to change the log-on logo, but we didn't mention a way to get rid of that awful green background. Can you change the background to blue?" We could show you how to edit the Registry to make the log-on background blue, but let's do another REG file instead. Remember, we don't guarantee these REG files will work on your system, so use the file at your own risk. Run Notepad and enter the following as shown, except that you should insert a blank line where it says "Blank line goes here." REGEDIT4 Blank line goes here [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors] "Background"="0 0 255" Blank line goes here Choose File, Save As and locate a folder for the file. Name the file Colors.reg and click Save. The key to the color is the line "Background"="0 0 255". These numbers represent the values of red, green, and blue. To get a fully saturated blue (which, by the way, we find at least as ugly as the original green), enter 0 for red, 0 for green, and 255 (maximum) for blue. To get the most attractive background, you may wish to experiment with these values.To make the change, double-click the Colors.reg icon. This will merge the data with the Registry.
bulletWRONG CD
recently added a CD-ROM drive to my computer. The problem is that Windows NT still looks at the previous drive letter when I make changes to the system. Is there a way to tell Windows NT 4.0 that the drive letter has changed?" You can make a Registry change to tell Windows NT Workstation 4.0 to use a different source CD-ROM drive. Be careful when editing the Registry. Click Start and choose Run. Now, type regedit and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion. In the right pane, look for SourcePath. Double-click the SourcePath icon and enter your new path. For example, if the CD-ROM drive you want to use is Drive E, enter e:\i386 and click OK. Now, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup and double-click the SourcePath icon in the right pane. Enter the same source path as before (e:\i386 for example) and click OK. Choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit and then restart the computer. SHUTDOWN ONLY AFTER LOG-ON By default, you can shut down Windows NT Workstation 4.0 without logging on. If you don't wish to allow users to do this, you can make a Registry change that will eliminate the option. As usual, be very careful when editing the Registry. Now click Start, Run, type regedit and click OK (or press Enter) to run RegEdit. When RegEdit opens, navigate to  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon In the right pane, locate ShutdownWithoutLogon and double-click its icon. When the Edit String dialog box opens, change the entry from its default value of 1 to 0 (zero). Close RegEdit by choosing Registry, Exit. Now, restart the computer.When the computer restarts, you'll notice that the shutdown option is no longer available. The only way to shut down is to first log on.  
bulletTOWARD A MORE VERSATILE DESKTOP
A number of people have asked about ways to sort items in the Start, Programs menu. One way is to install Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. IE 4 modifies your desktop in several ways. With IE 4 installed, you can arrange your menu items using the drag-and-drop method. If you're already using Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 to access the Internet, you may want to consider upgrading to IE 4.
bulletA SEARCH MISSION
We recently discussed choosing between Regedit32 and the newer RegEdit when editing the Registry. "To me the big benefit to RegEdit is its search capabilities. When you use Regedit32, you can only search for a key and can only search one hive at a time. RegEdit allows you to search all hives at once for any value you need, whether you're searching for a key or for data."
bulletWORKING WITH COM PORT PROBLEMS
recently installed a new modem and now my Internet connection won't work. I get a message telling me the port is in use. But the port is not in use. The modem is on Com 3, and the only other Com port being used is Com 1, where I have my mouse attached. Why does the computer think Com 3 is already in use?" This is the type of question that we normally don't handle either because we don't have enough information about the system, or because we have no way to simulate the problem. However, this one is very frequently encountered. By default, Com 1 and Com 3 use the same interrupt and Com 2 and Com 4 share an interrupt. In many cases, this doesn't pose a problem because we don't try to use both ports simultaneously. But if the mouse is on Com 1, it's being used constantly.Therefore, if you attempt to use a modem on Com 3, you'll have a conflict.The best approach in this particular case is to move the modem to Com 2. This should solve the problem.
bulletCOMPLETE CONTROL
In our July 22 tip, we discussed a way to control the startup sequence. "Your startup sequence tip was good, but I do it a different way. Startup will run in alphabetical order so I go into the startup folder and rename all the shortcuts using numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, and so on). I put the number in front of the original name. For example, MyProg.exe would become 1MyProg.exe (or 1_MyProg.exe). This way you can quickly put the files in any order you like."
bulletFOLDERS WHERE YOU WANT THEM
In the last tip, we showed you how to create a shortcut to a file using the Create Shortcut wizard. You can also use the wizard to create shortcuts to folders. However, the procedure is a bit different from that used to create shortcuts to files.To create a new folder shortcut using the Create Shortcut wizard, right-click the desktop and choose New, Shortcut. Now, type in the folder path. For example, if you want to place a shortcut to your data folder, you might type c:\MyStuff\Data After you enter the path, click Next. Enter a name for your new folder and click Finish. You have no icon options at this point--the new folder gets assigned the default folder icon. If you'd like to change the icon, right-click the shortcut and choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and then click Change Icon. Select an icon and click OK. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box and save your changes.
bulletMORE ON QUICK RESTART
We ran a tip suggesting that you could restart more quickly after a Registry change if you choose Start, Shut Down, Close All Programs, and log on as a different user. In that tip, we said that holding down the Shift key while you click Yes to restart the computer has no effect in Windows NT 4.0. Several readers objected to this statement, so let's clarify it. In Windows 95 and 98, you choose Start, Shut Down and select the Restart the Computer radio button. Then you click Yes to restart the computer. If you hold down Shift while you click Yes, Windows 95 will restart without going through the computer boot sequence. Windows NT Workstation 4.0 will not do this--even if you hold down Shift, the computer will begin its boot sequence. However, as a numbers of readers mentioned, if you continue to hold down the Shift key while Windows NT Workstation 4.0 restarts, the system will bypass many of the drivers that it would otherwise load. But since your system will be minus some of its drivers, this isn't a good way to speed up the restart. This feature exists to help with trouble-shooting, not to provide speedy start-ups.
bulletTURN ON NUMLOCK
I set Numlock On in my BIOS setup, but it still turns off when I run Windows NT Workstation 4.0. Is there a way to turn on Numlock automatically?" Some people seem to have problems getting Numlock to turn on when NT 4.0 starts, and others don't have the problem. Some readers have said that SP 3 cures the problem and others say it doesn't. Our experience is that Numlock won't turn on automatically in Windows NT Workstation 4.0 unless we make some changes to the Registry.Since so many readers experience the Numlock problem, we decided to create a REG file to make the Registry changes. Although we've tested the REG file here, we can't guarantee that it will work as expected on your system. If you decide to try the REG file, run Notepad and enter the following exactly as shown, simply pressing Enter in place of the text "Blank line goes here": REGEDIT4 Blank line goes here [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard] "InitialKeyboardIndicators"="2" Blank line goes here [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard] "InitialKeyboardIndicators"="2" Blank line goes here Choose File, Save As, and choose a folder for your new REG file. Name the file Num.reg and save it. Next, double-click the Num.reg icon to merge the file with the Registry. After you run Num.reg, turn on Numlock and restart the computer. When Windows NT Workstation 4.0 starts again, Numlock will be on.
bulletWITHOUT A CLUE
you can enhance the security of your Windows NT Workstation 4.0 if you instruct the system not to display the name of the last user.This is a procedure that often appears in tip requests. This time, rather than go through all the steps required to edit the Registry, let's create a REG file to take care of the job. As usual, we can't guarantee that the REG files shown here will operate as expected on your system, so proceed with caution. To write the REG file, run Notepad (Start, Programs, Accessories, Notepad). Type in the following exactly as shown except for the line numbers. The line numbers are there to show what data you must type on each line.
1. REGEDIT4
2.
3. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
4. "DontDisplayLastUserName"="1"
Choose File, Save As and name the file Secure.reg. Save the file in a folder for later use. Now locate the folder and double-click the new REG file. This will merge the data with the Registry. Restart the computer, and you'll find that the user name no longer appears. If you decide you want to put the system back to its default condition, run Notepad and type in the following:
1. REGEDIT4
2.
3. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
4. "DontDisplayLastUserName"="0"
Choose File, Save As and name this file Sec_Off.reg. As before, run the file to restore your Registry to the default, and the user name will appear when you boot the computer.
bulletCOLOR IT BLUE
In a Unix or Linux OS, the command line is very important. Somewhere along the line, someone implemented the ability to have directory and exec files in different colors. This makes browsing a little more distinguishable and colorful. Is there a way to get NT to display directories and exec files in different colors?" No, you can't set separate colors for file types. However, there are several ways to set the command prompt colors. To select new default colors for the command prompt window, right-click the Command Prompt icon and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Colors tab. Use the radio buttons labeled Screen Text and Screen Background to select new colors. After you make the color selection, click OK.If you're working in the command prompt window and would like to change the colors temporarily, you can use the Color command. The Color command uses the color combinations shown here.
0 = Black / 8 = Gray
1 = Blue / 9 = Light Blue
2 = Green / A = Light Green
3 = Aqua / B = Light Aqua
4 = Red / C = Light Red
5 = Purple / D = Light Purple
6 = Yellow / E = Light Yellow
7 = White / F = Bright White
The Color command syntax is color BF where B is the background color and F is the foreground. Choose your colors from the list shown above. Let's suppose that you'd like a bright white background with light red letters. Type color fc and press Enter. For a blue background with white characters, type color 17 and press Enter.
bulletANOTHER TIP THAT WON'T DIE
Remember automatic log-on? That's officially known around these parts as "the tip that refuses to die." Here's another tip that rises from its resting place now and then. Right-click Start and choose Open. Right-click the Start Menu window, and then select New, Folder. When the new folder appears, give it the following name (you must type the name exactly as shown here--we suggest that you copy and paste the text): Control Panel. {21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} Now click Start. Control Panel will be the first item (at the top of the list). When you move your mouse over the new Control Panel folder, a cascading menu of all your system's Control Panels will appear.
bulletYOUR OWN LOG-ON MESSAGES
A number of readers have asked about how to add custom log-on messages to Windows NT Workstation 4.0. Although we've discussed this in the past, it's been a while, so let's run through the procedure. Adding a custom log-on message requires you to edit the Registry, so be careful. Click Start, Run, type regeditand press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. Look in the right pane for entries named LegalNoticeCaption and LegalNoticeText. If the two entries already exist, you can add the text you want to use for the title in LegalNoticeCaption. Double-click the LegalNoticeCaption icon, enter your text, and press Enter. Repeat for LegalNoticeText. After you've entered your text, close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit) and restart the computer. If the two entries don't exist, right-click in the right pane and choose New, String Value. Name the new entry LegalNoticeCaption. Now, create a new entry named LegalNoticeText. Enter text into the new entries as described above.
bulletCAN I GET A MENU OVAH HEAH?
When you move the mouse through a Windows NT Workstation 4.0 menu, you'll notice that there is a delay before the submenu opens. There's a purpose for this: You don't expand every submenu that you move past as you scroll through the menu. However, some people would like either more or less delay. You can make this delay as short or as long as you like. You'll find the key that controls the menu speed at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. The key name is MenuShowDelay, and it accepts entries from 0 (zero) to 65535. Zero represents minimum delay, and 65535 is the maximum delay. We've generated a REG file that will change the speed for you. To create the file, run Notepad and enter the following exactly as shown: REGEDIT4 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] "MenuShowDelay"="0" Now choose File, Save As and name the file Delay.reg. Locate a folder that you want to use for the file and click Save. The file as shown will set the menu delay to its minimum. If you want to change the delay to something other than the minimum, change the zero to another number. The only way you can really get exactly what you want is to experiment with a variety of values. All you have to do is open the REG file for editing and then change the value. Make sure you always keep the value between the quotation marks. The quotation marks are necessary. Then save the file and run it. Each time you run the file, you'll need to restart the computer (or log on again).
bulletDIAL IT YOUR WAY
If you'd rather not fool with all the problems of the Dial-up Networking, here's a batch file that you can use to dial your ISP, run Microsoft Internet Explorer (or some other browser), and then hang up when you're finished. To generate the batch file, run NotePad and enter the code shown here: c:\Winnt\system32\RasPhone -d Your ISP server as listed in Dial-Up. 'dial "c:\Program Files\Plus!\Microsoft Internet\IEXPLORE.EXE" ' run IE c:\winnt\system32\rasdial Your ISP server as listed in Dial-Up /DISCONNECT ' hang up Choose File, Save As. Name the file something like Dial.bat (Dial isn't important, but the BAT extension is) and save it in a convenient folder.You can place a shortcut to Dial.bat on the desktop. Once the shortcut is in place, right-click the icon and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Now, click the arrow at the right side of the Run list box and choose Minimized. This will prevent the MS-DOS window from showing up when you run the file.The path names shown in the batch file may not be the same as yours. Use Windows NT Explorer to locate the necessary file locations and substitute your path for the ones shown.
bulletA DOSKEY MACRO
In the last tip, we discussed an enhanced way to move files for possible later recovery. Rather than write a separate batch file to delete files to a folder for potential recovery, you can use Doskey to alias the Del command and make a new Delete command: doskeydoskey DEL=move $* C:\Trashdoskey DELETE=DEL $* Using this macro, you don't have to remember to use a new command--just use Del. When you are sure you want to delete a file permanently, use Delete.To create and use the macro, run Notepad and type in the code as shown above. Name the file Del.bat and save it in your Startup folder. When you start, the Doskey macro will be in place for use
bulletIT'S GOOD
Here's a Windows NT 4.0 Easter egg that subscriber Frank L. tells us we've missed. Right-click the desktop and choose Properties. Click the Screen Saver tab and choose 3-D Text as your screen saver. Now click Settings, click in the text entry box, and type the words I love NT Click OK. The screen saver will now display the word Good? question mark and all.
bulletYOU DON'T KNOW WHERE THAT STUFF'S BEEN
Several readers asked us to point out that you should disable antivirus software when you install new programs. This is a good suggestion because most antivirus software will cause problems when you install new software. That's especially true when you install software (such as service packs) that makes changes to your system. On the other hand, you may want to consider leaving the antivirus software on when you install freeware or shareware, which is a source of many viruses. The main consideration is usually not who wrote the program, but where you got the program. If you get the program from a safe site (such as http://www.pcworld.com), you can safely disable the antivirus software. If you get a program from a BBS you know very little about, you're risking a virus invasion. An original CD from a major software supplier is always virus free, but beware of the CDs you may pick up at computer show flea markets--these could be copies. Not only are copies illegal, they could harbor viruses. If the CD obviously wasn't labeled with a CD printer, pass up that "bargain."
bulletAT YOUR SERVICE
Service Pack 4 has been available since late October. If you're ready to apply this latest (and last) Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Service Pack, go to http://www.microsoft.com/support/winnt/default.htm and download at your leisure. To see what Service Pack 4 has to offer, click What's New in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 before you begin the download.
bulletSOUNDS OFF
Is there a way to get rid of the beep that sounds when a message box or alert appears. You can assign whatever sounds you wish to in Windows NT Workstation 4.0 events. If you wish, you can also assign no sounds at all to the events. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel. When Control Panel opens, double-click the Sounds icon. When the Sounds dialog box opens, click an event to select it, and then look in the Name list box to see what sound is currently assigned to the selected event. To assign a new sound (or no sound at all), click the arrow at the right side of the Name list box to expand the list. You can select None if you don't want a sound assigned to the current selection, or you can select a new sound from the list. If you’d like to assign a sound that doesn't appear in the list, click Browse and search for the sound file you want to use. After you make all your selections, click OK to close the dialog box and record your changes.
bulletTHE TIP THAT WILL NEVER DIE
One of our subscribers asks if we can explain how to log on to Windows NT Workstation 4.0 automatically. Since we've had so many requests for this tip, we wrote a REG file to make the process easier for you. Although we're using a REG file as opposed to using RegEdit to make the Registry changes, we are still making changes to the Registry. We can't guarantee that the REG file will perform as expected on your computer. To create the REG file, run Notepad and enter the following exactly as shown. Where you see the words BLANK LINE GOES HERE, press Enter to insert a blank line. Note that the REG file needs these blank lines to work properly. REGEDIT4 BLANK LINE GOES HERE [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon] BLANK LINE GOES HERE "AutoAdminLogon"="1" "DefaultPassword"="Your Password goes here" BLANK LINE GOES HERE For this tip to work, you must have a password, and you must enter the password that you chose for your system log-on. If you enter a different password, you'll have problems with other programs. Type your password into the REG file at DefaultPassword. Make sure you retain the quotes. Now choose File, Save As and name the file Auto.reg. Locate a folder for the file and click Save.
bulletPREPARE REGISTRY FOR LAUNCH
A few months ago you ran a tip describing how to run a program automatically by making a change to the Registry. Could you repeat this tip? I need to start a program on several of my workstations, and if I put them in the start-up folder, the users delete them."Let's do a REG file for this task to make the job a little easier. As usual, we must warn you that there's no guarantee the REG file will work as you expect. Use REG files at your own risk. To create the REG file, run Notepad and type the following exactly as shown, substituting a blank line for the text "Blank line goes here": REGEDIT4 Blank line goes here [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows] "run"="c:\\MyFolder\\Myprogram.ext" Blank line goes here Enter the program and the path of your program as shown in the example line "run"= Don't leave out the quotation marks. Choose File, Save As and locate a folder for your new file. Name the file Runit.reg and save it. To merge the file with the Registry, double-click its icon and restart the computer after the merge completes. (You'll go through a few dialog boxes that will let you know when the data has been added to the Registry.
bulletNOT THAT WE WON'T CONTINUE TO FUSS AT YOU
We've often talked about the need to frequently back up the Registry--especially when you intend to make changes. correctly points out that the most thorough way to do is this is to use the rdisk utility. Here's a tip:To back up the Registry, go to the Run command, typer disk /s and press Enter. This will launch the Repair Disk utility and prompt you for the number of floppies required to back up the registry files. This is also called the Emergency Repair Disk.First Repair Disk updates the configuration files (these are found in the System_Root\Repair directory) and then requests a floppy. Repair Disk then formats the floppy and copies the files from the \Repair directory to the disk(s) in a compressed format. The down side to this is that if you ever have to do a repair, the information on the disk(s) is only as current as the last time you ran the rdisk utility. So, if you're going to edit the Registry, this is a good time to run rdisk. Once you've run the rdisk utility, you can do a Repair procedure to replace the desired registry key(s). If you don't want to go through the Repair Disk utility, you can just copy the contents of the \Repair directory to floppy or zip disk. These files are already compressed.
bulletDON'T MESS WITH IT!
Some time ago, you suggested editing Bootsect.dos to change the name of the alternate operating system. Based on your suggestion, I opened the file. There was nothing there to edit, so I saved the file and closed it. Now I can't boot Windows 95."Thanks for the comment. We do always try to inform people when we know a tip is particularly dangerous--and we recognize that many tips have the potential to cause problems. However, you misread the particular tip that you mentioned--we suggested editing Boot.ini, not Bootsect.dos. The problem that you experienced should warn other readers not to fool with Bootsect.dos. If you damage this file, you will not be able to boot your alternate system. As a general rule, if you open a file and see that it contains binary data as opposed to all text, don't save the file. Instead, click the Close box or press Alt-F4 immediately. If a dialog box opens asking about saving the file, click No. You do not want to save changes to a binary file using a text editor.
bulletCALCULATOR AND SERVICE PACK 4
If you've installed Service Pack 4, there's a change in the Calculator you might like to know about. Calculator now clears the display when you switch between Standard and Scientific views. If you need to switch between views without losing the current number, here's a workaround. For this example, let's say you're currently in Standard view. Store the currently displayed number by clicking MS. Then choose View, Scientific to switch view. Click MR to recall the number you stored in Standard view.
bulletCHECK CD PLAYER
I have two CD-ROM drives in my computer running under Windows NT Workstation 4.0. I recently noticed that when I was using CD Player to listen to an audio CD, I was unable to access data on the second CD-ROM drive. What I discovered is that CD Player can sometimes lock out both drives. Apparently, when you run CD Player, it looks for audio CDs in all the available CD-ROM drives." We were not able to emulate this problem. If you have the problem, you could try this: In CD Player, choose Options, Preferences. When the Preferences dialog box opens, select the check box labeled "Stop CD playing on exit" and then click OK. Now close CD Player and see if you can access your second drive.
bulletREDUCING NETWORK TRAFFIC
By default, N